>> pelley: tonight, disaster strikes the heart of america. homes are splintered after deadly tornadoes rip across the midwest. dean reynolds and anna wern rer on the scene. mitt romney is looking like a front-runner again, but can he hold on? john dickerson on the run-up to super tuesday. a moderate calls it quits in the ever-more-polarized congress. nancy cordes on why olympia snowe is leaving the senate. remembering former teen idol davy jones of the monk monkees. >> and david martin, with a wounded veteran of iraq who fights on at home. > captioning sponsored by cbs

this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. they came after midnight when most folks were sleeping. by the time the sun rose today, survivors could see what had terrified them in the night. from a helicopter over harrisburg, illinois, you can follow its path that one tornado took, buildings blown apart on their foundations, winds as high as 170 miles an hour did this. and harrisburg was not alone. 27 tornadoes have been reported. at least nine people are dead, more than 150 injured. the resort town of branson, missouri, is hit hard. the storm system moved east. tornado watches and warnings were posted from mississippi to ohio. we have two correspondents in the disaster area. first, dean reynolds in harrisburg, illinois. dean. >> reporter: scott, just have a look at this behind me here.

this used to be a strip mall here in harrisburg, and as you can see, you it has been completely, utterly pulverized. the governor of the state declared this part of southern illinois a disaster area today, and if you just look around me, you can see it's easy to see why. as she surveyed the damage in her neighborhood on mckinley avenue, tammy risley remembered the noise. >> it was like a growling. it was the loudest growling i've ever heard. it sent a death chill up my spine. >> reporter: the tornado ripped across this town of 9,000 residents at 5:00 a.m. it swept in too fast and too early in the morning for the warning sirens to do much good. >> sirens went off and then it hit. >> reporter: so when you heard the sirens, then the next thing you heard-- >> boom, yup. and the power went out, and just-- it just blew. >> reporter: many here did not take cover until they heard the sounds of their own homes falling apart. >> i thought i was going to die.

me, my kids, and my husband was going to die. >> reporter: daybreak revealed the scale of destruction, the piles of debris, the cars still parked where the garages once housed them, the town's wal-mart and strip mall basically torn to shreds. in all, at least 300 homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed in this town where eric greg is the mayor. >> we will rebuild this city. we will make this city stronger. this will not stop us. it will make us stronger. >> reporter: the storm system was created when a mass of cold air from the rockies crashed into unseasonably warm and wet air over the eastern part of the nation. harrisburg's tornado tore a 200-yard-wide path across the former coal mining town. >> devastating. you can imagine what it was like. >> reporter: now, 15,000 people are still without power, scott, and a dust-to-dawn curfew is being imposed to discourage

looting. >> pelley: dean thanks very much. it will be another week or so until tourist season in branson, missouri and that's a good thing. the strip of hotels and music vep use was hit by a twister and many homes are in ruins. anna werner is there. anna. >> reporter: scott, i'm standing in what's left of the nature sunshine health food store. the roof's been taken off. the store is destroyed. in fact, the only way that you'd know that this used to be a health food store is by a few books and other items the tornado left behind. the tornado skipped down main street, tearing at the businesses and theaters in the heart of this country music resort town. >> the whole house shook, and i was, like whoa! >> reporter: as sirens sounded, glenn lefebvre gathered his wife and three into their bath tub. are you thinking about your family? the tornado passed. then he heard the screams of his

neighbors, trapped in this house, and ran to help. >> i had to get in. i had to. i had to get in. >> reporter: why? >> because of the way they were screaming, "help us, help us." i had to get in there. >> reporter: he got as close as he could and then kept them calm until the rescuers arrived. what was that like for you when they finally came out and you saw them? >> it was nice, it was nice. >> reporter: officials credit a newly installed radar alert system called dual polarization for giving the area aa 30-minute warning. the old doppler radar would have represented a possible tornado as a small orange box but the new system showed a cluster of blue hues that indicate swirling debris, an undeniable sign of a tornado. came right through, didn't it? 76-year-old marion cline awoke to tree branches slicing through the roof of her mobile home. >> i'm thankful i'm alive because i-- i could have been killed if i was back here. >> reporter: yeah, that's hard to think about. >> it is. >> reporter: as bad as the

damage is here, scott, the loss of life could have been much worse. it's the off-season in branson. at the peak of the tourist season, as many as 60,000 tourists cram into downtown on any given day. >> pelley: anna, thank you. anna mentioned that new radar system called dual polarization. you can see more about that "omorrow on "cbs this morning." we were thinking in the newsroom today that tornadoes seem to be coming unusually early and often. we asked our research department, and it turns out there have been 121 tornadoes so far this year, according to anaestimate by the weather service. and sure enough, that is more than double what we have seen on average in january and february over the last 10 years. it was a close call for mitt romney last night in the michigan primary. romney won his home state by only about three points. he won by a stronger marge nin arizona.

romney took his campaign for the republican nomination to ohio today. that's one of 10 states voting next tuesday, super tuesday, when about a third of the delegates needed to clinch the nomination are up for grabs. john dickerson is our political director. and, john, romney said it himself last night, he didn't win by much, but he won by enough. how does the landscape look going forward. >> well tlooks a lot better for mitt romney. it was a squeakener a state where he had so many advantages, but a loss would have been devastating. so he avoided that. his campaign arguethat in michigan, romney was able to get support from party regulars, a group that's been persistently skeptical of him, and he was helped by the fact that rick santorum didn't do well outside of those very conservative voters who are his base. those are the two things to look for going forward. in less than a week, we have super tuesday, and this will be two battles going on-- mitt romney versus his rivals, rick santorum and newt gingrich, and a battle between gingrich and

santorum to be the only alternate toif mitt romney. if there's a state to watch it's ohio. it's a key swing state. romney has no special advantages there. in this topsy-turvy primary so far, scott, a win in one place does not necessarily help you in the contest to come. >> pelley: john, thanks. if you are fed up with the bickering on capitol hill, well, one long-serving member of congress has just joined you. we were surprised yesterday when we heard that republican senator olympia snowe of maine won't run again. she's a moderate, and she told nancy cordes there doesn't seem to be much room for moderation these days. nancy. >> reporter: and, scott, she says she misses the company. moderates used to be a powerful voting block here on capitol hill. not right now, and snowe says she doesn't want to spend another six years in the senate if it's going to accomplish so little. >> the point is it was designed to be, you know, a consensus building institution, and we have strayed from that, far from

it, so that we're not doing, you know, our regular business, let alone the major questions. we've deferred tax reform. we deferred regulatory reform. we deferred an energy policy. deferred budget resolutions on an annual base, balanced budget amendment. we're not doing the things that people rightfully expect to be coming at this time during this challenging economic period. >> reporter: what do you think is the one thing that has contributed the most to breakdown in bipartisanship? is it money in politics? what is it? >> well, there's certainly too much money in politics. i think that we are beginning in america to think of ourselves as red and blue instead of red, white, and blue as i've always said. we should unite for the benefit of the country. at the end of the day, what is going to be good for the country? it can't be for one section of

the country and not the other. we have to think of the greater good and the larger questions for our destiny. that's what people are worried about, that our future is imperimmed by this paralysis. >> reporter: was it getting too lonely to be a moderate republican in the senate? >> there wasn't a lot of company. that's for sure. some would describe us as a vanishing center. i would always say the sensible center. obviously, fewer and fewer within our ranks. >> reporter: snowe's centrist positions were a reflection of the politics in her state of maine and her departure is a big blow for republicans, scott. they had been hoping to retake control of the senate in november. that was already a tall order, and now they'll have to fight to hold on to her seat, too. >> pelley: thanks, nancy. there is a glimmer of hope tonight that north korea's new leader, kim jong-un, wants to step back from the nuclear brink. today his country promised to stop testing nuclear weapons and long-range missiles and allow international inspections.

in return, the u.s. will send tons of food aid. north koreans have struggled with starvation for decades while money was divertedly to the military and its atomic bomb program. four americans have been killed iand at least 15 wounded in attacks in afghanistan since last week when islamic holy books were burned at a u.s. base there. dozens of afghans have been killed or wounded in riots. the u.s. says the koran's were burned with trash by mistake. today, we spoke to u.s. ambassador to afghanistan, ryan crocker, and the commander in charge of the war, marine general john allen. 10 years in the country, sir, how could these corans have been burned? >> it is something we're not happy about, frankly. and before the sun went down that day, scott, i issued an order from my headquarters that called for the retraining of the entire force, to assist us in understanding the significance of the koran and of the other

religious materials to the afghan people. that's my obligation as a commander. that's our obligation as a people. >> pelley: ambassador crocker, the united states has been building a relationship in the afghanistan for more than a decade now, and i wonder how much has that relationship been set back by this incident with the korans? >> scott, clearly, it's been a bad week. but i'm quite confident that, you know, we'll get through this. the pace of the protests has dropped dramatically. a decade's worth of relationships doesn't go away in a single week. so we'll-- we'll move forward. >> pelley: there's more of the interview with ambassador crocker and general allen on our web site cbsnews.com. the situation in syria took another turn for the worse today. the dictator, bashar al-assad, has sent ground forces into the city of homs to "cleanse" a neighborhood controlled by rebels. homs has been blasted by rockets and mortars for three and a half

weeks. the regime seems determined to wipe out the year-old freedom movement and homs is the front line. a member of the murdoch family steps down as the british tabloid scandal grows. a federal judge snuffs out the graphic labels for cigarette packs. and remembering davy jones of the monkees. ade dark roast forest fresh full tank brain freeze cake donettes rolling hot dogs bag of ice anti-freeze wash and dry diesel self-serve fix a flat jumper cables 5% cashback right now, get 5% cashback at gas stations. it pays to discover. do you really think brushing is enough to keep it clean? while brushing misses germs in 75% of your mouth, listerine cleans virtually your entire mouth. so take your oral health to a whole new level.

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dr. scholl's massaging gel insoles ... you'll want to get up and go. >> pelley: rupert murdoch may be among the world's most powerful media titans but today his son, james, stepped down as head of murdoch's british newspapers. a journalism scandal is widening, amid allegations that murdoch journalists hacked cell phones and paid off police to get tabloid scoops. jim axelrod reports, that puts james murdoch in a tough spot. >> reporter: james murdoch has long insisted the hacking was the work of a rogue reporter who tapped into voice mails and e-mails of the people in the news and has consistently pushed back against any suggestion he knew of any illegal behavior. as he did during this parliamentary inquiry late last year. >> mr. murdoch, you must be the first mafia boss in history who didn't know he was running a criminal enterprise. >> mr. watson, please. i think that's inappropriate. >> reporter: the hacking targeted celebrities like hugh

grant ask "harry potter" author j.k. rowling, as well as murder victims like 13-year-old millidoweller. she was already dead when a reporter hacked into her cell phone and retrieved the messages, leading her parents to believe the girl was still alive. but so far, nothing has directly connected the murdochs to any wrongdoing. on monday, though, police investigator sue acres said she had evidence employeesave murdoch-owned newspaper had briebled a wide range of public officials in return for stories. one reporter, she said, had a budget of close to a quarter of a million dollars. >> there also appears to be have been a culture at the sun" of ill almost payments and systems to facilitate those payments while hiding the identity of the officials receiving the money. >> reporter: which is why the timing of murdoch's resignation seemed so curious, coming as british police are starting to comb through a mountain of evidence-- 300 million e-mails. steve hewlitt is a british media

analyst. >> he's either a fool if he didn't know, would you trust your pension with this man? >> reporter: the investigation could easily move to this side of the atlantic. remember, it is u.s. based meaning u.s. laws could have been violated. there are reports of news corp executives here in the united states being contacted by the f.b.i. >> pelley: a federal judge today ruled that those new, graphic cigarette warning labels go too far. some show a smoker's corpse. others feature a diseased lung. federal regulators said they had to be on all cigarette paction by later this year, but the judge said the labels violated tobacco company's right to free speech. he was a jockey turned teen idol. remembering the monkees' davy jones next.

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>> pelley: this story will make a lot of baby boomers feel older. davy jones of the monkees died today at his home in florida. the cause was a heart attack. ♪ hey, hey, we're the monkees ♪ . >> pelley: they were america's answer to the beatles, a made-for-tv sitcom band put together in 1966 to capitalize on the popularity of the fab four. ♪ cheer up sleep jean oh, what can it mean ♪ .

>> pelley: jones, born in england, became a teen idol, which led to this tv moment playing himself on the "brady bunch." >> will you really come to the prom? >> well, there is one little problem. >> what? >> well, i don't have a date. do you know a girl that would like to go with me? >> do i! >> pelley: the monkees lasted just two seasons on tv but they paved the way for today's music videos and sold 65 million records along the way. davy jones was 66. for many veterans, the battles continue long after they come home from war. one story next. medication continuously atch -- it releas for twenty-four hours. she uses one exelon patch daily for the treatment of mild to moderate alzheimer's symptoms. [ female announcer ] it cannot change the course of the disease.

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introducing swanson flavor boost. concentrated broth in easy to use packets. mix it into skillet dishes, for an instant dose of... hell-o! [ female announcer ] new swanson flavor boost. >> pelley: there's a formal dinner at the white house tonight. the guests of honor, 100 veterans of the war in iraq, representing the more than one million americans who served there. president obama wanted to note their accomplishments and, of course, their sacrifices. some veterans have had a long journey from the battlefield, and david martin has one marine's story. >> reporter: if you think the iraq war is over, you haven't met casey owens. we first met him in 2004 after a roadside bomb had torn off both his legs.

we caught up with him again in 2009 undergoing a pressurized oxygen treatment in an effort to cure his blinding headaches. when he walked out of that clinic, he seemed ready to get on with his life. >> free at last! >> reporter: but one of his prosthetic legs was giving him trouble and when we found him again in denver, he was using a wheelchair. we asked him were you free? >> no. i don't think i'll ever be free. i don't think the burden of war, you know, is ever gone. >> reporter: he had made it out of the i.c.u., but he still suffered from traumatic brain injury and posttraumatic stress. when he tried to get back to a normal life by going to college, it didn't work. >> i'd been out of school for 10 years and it just-- it was a little too much for me. >> reporter: the traumatic brain injury and the p.t.s.d., do you think that inhibited what you were able to do in school? >> definitely. it's focusing, just dealing with

the crowds in the school, just being alone a lot. >> reporter: how does that work? you said there were crowds there but you were alone. >> i could be in a room with 100 people and still be alone. >> reporter: why, because you're physically different? >> no, just mentally. >> reporter: they had no idea what you'd been through. >> i think i didn't realize what i'd been through, really what was going on with me. >> reporter: he moved to aspen, where he had fallen in love with skiing. >> it's the thing that, you know, let me be free and forget pret much my disability and everything else. >> reporter: but he still suffered from a perfect storm of injuries and was looking for answers in the bottom of a bottle. so what were you doing with your time? was it all consumed with-- >> drinking. >> reporter: in 2010, he was arrested and pled guilty to drunk driving. after two more run-ins with aspen police, he ended up in a rehab program. thanks to the kindness of strrns who wanted to help, there was a

first-of-its-kind wheelchair waiting for him when he got out, designed by jeff adams who lost the use of his legs when he was nine, it was fitted precisely to owen's body. he's scheduled to join a recovery program for veterans this spring, about the he has to stay sober. for the proud marine who donned his dress uniform to attend the second inauguration of george bush, it has come to this. what has helped you the most? >> drinking. i really-- i don't know what else to say. >> reporter: casey owens will never be free. we can only hope he will some day, somewhere find a place for himself in this country that sent him to war. david martin, cbs news, denver, colorado. >> pelley: a gallant fight. that's the cbs evening news for tonight. for all of us at cbs news all around the world, good night.

captioning sponsor this is 9 news now. right now at 7:00 we are being drenched by a huge round of showers. we're getting a deluge and perhaps a few thunderstorms have been around as well. top? >> the radar does not look like february. it looks like june, july. let's start with live doppler 9000, no warnings in the immediate metro area. we see warnings out in the west, winchester and points west all have flood warnings at this hour. we see a tremendous line of showers and a few thunderstorms, frequent lightning reported, some big tomb thunder in clarkbsurg and laytonsville -- time thunder in clarkbsurg and laytonsville and this activity is pushing off to the east. heavy rain pushing across 70, laytonsville, clarksville, 1 to 1 1/4 per hour, so big time